Ok, so far the new mission system et al. is awesome. Seriously, jumping on the test servers is like playing a full game when we've been playing a beta on the normal servers all along.
The new systems and interface seem to mostly address the high learning curve of the game that seems to scare off many new players. If you're good at the game, it's very little effort to blow through the first few missions, get some decent gear, and hop into tier 2. It's no longer necessary to grind away at tier 1 to scrape up enough crowns to afford decent gear to reach that 2* milestone, and it's not at all at the mercy of the players who already have lots of stuff.
I could keep spewing praise, but that's not really useful feedback, so here are some quick thoughts about things that were odd, confusing, or seemed to not quite work, bugs aside.
1) Seen it mentioned before, but it bears repeating. There is no indication until you accept a mission of how long it will be. A simple indicator on the mission page of how many levels a mission will be would be excellent.
2) As 1, but referring to difficulty. The coloured dot by the map is great once you are in levels, but playing through missions without visiting the arcade, even as an experienced player, I've been finding it confusing and difficult to quickly distinguish what depths I'll be playing. If I didn't already know all about what each depth means and where it is relative to how hard it is, the label above the map would be useless to me (and to a new player who hasn't bothered with the arcade yet.)
Having something in the mission entries before starting indicating that a mission was depth _ - depth _ would solve these both.
3) Particularly with the Prestige Missions, it's somewhat confusing and unclear what the missions that are locked when you scroll to the right in the mission menu are; whether they are unlocked by beating the current ones, leveling up, or by waiting... They just appear to be there.
4) Some indication when you return from missions telling you that new things are available in the Supply Depot would be great. Even a button instead of "Featured" that said "New" would probably draw the eye well enough that players would notice that they have new gear available.
5) The "tour around haven" missions are a spectacular way to acclimate new players to the places and features around haven. Similarly, being able to select the missions in the rescue camp instead of having to walk to the elevators makes these much less confusing to navigate.
On the other hand, the way that starting the missions seem to warp you to the point that you start the mission at somewhat detracts from the sense that you're doing things in an interactive place.
Perhaps if starting those types of missions gave you a message to go to that location to start, a ping on the map or some sort of indicator to tell you where to go to do the mission would make it more immersive. This is especially true of the Rescue Camp, where upon arrival you can just hit "start" instead of finding the lift and talking to people.
In a similar way, all of the missions that have you turn in materials, weapons, or items simply happening where you stand, makes them more of "free prestige" instead of the sense that you have done anything. If it indicated to talk to a certain NPC, it may be cliche, but at least you'd be doing something for the mission...
6) The Hall of Heroes... I've seen at least a few posts talking about concerns about making recipes easy to get and the tone and style of the Hall of Heroes, and how to get there.
This area seems a good idea to make the more "standard" gear easier to get (and not requiring multiple runs just to find what you need) however it's a strangely presented location and odd to get to by selecting it as a mission.
It would be vastly improved if were a location you could simply walk to once you have clearance. Perhaps it could be put in a doorway behind Brinks in the Bazaar, under Beschamel?
Once inside it, the idea that the "heroes" are simply standing around beside terminals for you to talk to them is bizarre and a bit silly. I saw one suggestion to make them statues that you could inspect. Perhaps Spiral HQ could make use of those holographic recon modules that are all over the place and use them as a teaching tool that you can activate to show a hologram of a "hero" that can be spoken to and interacted with like the knights present in the Hall now...
7) For the most part, the missions are great fun (and memorable too.) A few cases, especially after playing through the more tutorial-like ones before the Snarbolax, the missions seem to be less missions, and more normal levels with special names.
The couple of rescue missions that you get early on where you find a geo knight team, and then have a unique room where you fight a bunch of enemies work really well to give you a sense of having done something (even though just past the gate are NPC knights with FAR better gear than you have by then. :P)
Later on though, especially with Oilers in the Boilers and Frostifur Fandango, it's hard to get a sense that you have completed your objective. I beat Oilers in the Boilers without killing more than a few actual Oilers, and was tempted to backtrack to see if I missed the actual objective somewhere back behind that I was supposed to discover or destroy. Even adding a room with some more oilers (or in the case of Frostifur, some more frost wolvers even...) would make it seem more like there is an objective that you have completed.
That's all for now! Hopefully this is useful feedback. :)
I'm looking forward to playing around and testing some more of the new stuff.
I'm just going to toss in my 2 cents here about the issues you bring up.
1) There is a simple method to check that's been in the main game for a while under the drop-down menu that looks like a gear there is an option called Gate Map.
2) The colored dot is rather useless and quite an unreliable source. As long as you know what you're doing, the only you should watch out for is red or purple.
3) The Prestige missions are cycled in daily, with the grayed-out missions being the next day's objective.
4) Indicating "new" items since the featured items are the most recent additions and you can tell there are new items available when you feel the list is somewhat different from last mission's. You always see the featured items anyway since they're the first page of the mission window.
5) There really are only 2 meaningful destinations in the Rescue Camp anyway, and you'd be hard-pressed to strike up a meaningful conversation given its population of alts and people who have yet to discover the enter key.
6) I agree that the hero thing is farfetched. I feel like the vendors should just be 5★ soldiers who are gradually authorized to sell you higher level wares as you progress.
7) You feel like some of the levels are just normal levels with 1 special distinct room because that is literally all they are and those rooms are usually just unique scenario room used for only that one time in that one variation of that level.
I hope I cleared some things up. Feel free to ask me any further questions you may have and I'll try to answer or explain as many as I have the power to do so.